


Awakening

by taichara



Series: Blood and Fire [4]
Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-09
Updated: 2014-11-09
Packaged: 2018-02-24 17:46:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2590595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Only one of the old master's students may claim the Cloth of the Dragon.  Only one, and the other has to taste the bitterness of defeat.</p><p>But that's alright, because some allegiances are forever -- even if, like Ohko, one has forgotten them while in the land of the living ...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awakening

In the soft light of an early dawn, two young men stared each other down on a high cliff's pinnacle, one in soft greys and one in purest white. The raging waterfall around them sprayed the finest of mists around them both, sliding like ribbons down one's sleek tail of hair, hanging like tears in the thick mane of the other.

The first -- lean and deliberate in his movement -- lowered into a defensive posture with a sigh.

"It doesn't have to keep being this way, Ohko. You're not going to be accepted by Draco just for vengeance.  
"Can't you feel them, waiting there for us to turn away for the shortest moment?" 

His expression tightened, as the old argument was brought out yet again. Then pale violet eyes flickered towards the massive shadowed peak looming on the horizon.

"Don't you hear them, trying to lure us in to open the Gate?  
"Draco was pledged to hold them at bay, and fight them off if the Gate fails to hold.  
"Why can't you accept that?"

Narrowed golden eyes in a dusky face follow the glance; and Ohko purred a laugh, dropping into his own stance with clawed hands at the ready.

"Oh, I _feel_ them, Shiryuu. I'm not that much of an idiot, you know.  
"Why should I be afraid of something I've known all my life -- "

Then he lunged, snarling, and the air tore around him with the force of his strikes. Shiryuu writhed out of the angry tiger's path, countered with a flurry of blows, one, twice, three times, ten times at Ohko's torso. Ohko, snarling at the one successful strike, slids away from the rest, and claeds at Shiryuu's hands as he passed --

The fight was on.

-*-

And so it went, through the spray of the falls and across the scree of the golden cliffs, aloft in the cloud-like patches of forest and down into the fast-running river itself. For hours they chased and evaded and struck at each other with fists and feet and sharp claws, with rain-dragons and flurries of soul-forged talons. No quarter was asked, none given, and as evening fell the two were battered and fading quickly.

Their battle took them -- after an irritated warning from their ancient master, to take their roughhousing elsewhere -- from the lush gold-green river valleys and golden cliffs, and into the very foothills of the dire guarded peak. Dragon's claws and tiger's roars of thunder scored the hills and shattered stone; until finally Shiryuu struck Ohko fairly, and against the very root of the Gate, with three well-aimed blows. Ohko choked out a curse and snarled, as Shiryuu backed up a pace or two and his power coiled around him, eyes growing milky, alarmed and wary of the mountain looming above and the passage it warded.

"You can't win this, Ohko.  
"Draco's bearer needs to fight Death, not lust after it -- "

"And what would _you_ know about death, or vengeance?" 

Ohko spat, slinging his tangled mane from his face, muscles bunching as he pushed away from the stone and advanced again.

"What would _you_ know about loss?"

He charged, his power gathered like a rising storm; and Shiryuu sidestepped into a haze of mist, and struck him down again. And this time Ohko slowly sank to the dry soil. 

Shiryuu paused, rubbing one bruised and bloodied hand against the long, torn grey tails of his tunic, and sighed again. Ohko had the demon-sense, but he didn't seem to care about it's meaning, let alone what he should do with it. If the mountain held no dread for him, let him cool off at its feet for a little while ...

_: Shiryuu. Return, Saint of the Dragon. :_

He stood, stunned, for a moment; and then sense took over. Without even the thought of it, really, he'd "won", bested his fellow student in fair combat. So now his duties as warden and hunter would begin --

As Shiryuu suddenly felt the Dragon's touch at his spirit Ohko faded from view, as the Master's power carried him back to the Thousand Peaks to claim his Cloth for the first time.

-*-

"Ohko! Oi, Ohko! How long are planning to lie in the sun, there?"

The strange, cheerful voice was accompanied by a brisk shake of his battered shoulder. Already beginning to collect his scattered wits, Ohko snorted with pained surprise and heaved himself upright, batting at the foreign touch. Glaring out from beneath tangled bangs, he glowered at this unexpected witness to his defeat.

"How do you know my name, anyway?"

"Oh, I made a point of knowing the fighters in the area." 

The new arrival moved a few discreet paces away from the bloodied youth, hands tucked demurely behind his back. He looked a handful of years older than Ohko himself, with a thick short mane of black hair brushing his shoulders and shining russet eyes; and was dressed much like Ohko himself, in black and garnet, picked out in foreign patterns of geometics and bird-monsters.

Ohko blinked, slowly. he was certain he knew this little slip, but from where? And why did he look just a little _too_ polished, too perfect? He growled a laugh and shook out his mane, climbing slowly to his feet and surveying the blood soaking his own once-white silks. Oh well.

"Huh. You look like a southerner trying to blend in with the natives, with all that finery.  
"Where do you think you're from, Shangri-la?"

"Kathmandu, actually." 

The stranger chuckled, and glanced up at the looming peak above them.

"Strange, isn't it? Like there's something there, sleeping, waiting ... "

"There's a gate in the rock.  
"Goes down to the Yellow Springs themselves; right into the land of the dead."

"I'm not surprised -- so much power there ... " 

The stranger brought his hands forward again, and cracked his knuckles briskly.

"So you lost in your bid for Draco? A pity, that; you would have made a fine hunter." 

He smiled, and gracefully avoided Ohko's clawed swipe. 

"Care to see something fascinating, more than the Dragon even? I found it just before I stumbled across you, in the lee of the peak.  
"Come and see!"

And with that he was gone, skimming across the dull stones as if in flight. Ohko -- despite himself -- was fascinated, and followed him.

-*-

Shiryuu recounted quietly the events of the day's battle to his snowy-haired master, extrapolating where knocks to the head -- and Ohko's strength-sapping blows -- made his memory hazy.

And never had he seen such a defeated, almost regretful expression on his teacher's face as he did when he was finished.

"Master ... what is it? What's happened?"

Dohko looked away, towards the Erebos Gate and the swiftly-falling night.

"He's lost, my boy.  
"Ohko's not coming back to us this time."

-*-

Ohko's mouth gaped as his gaze fell onto the foreigner's discovery.

It crouched in the rubble as if it had just shaken itself free of the old worn stone, tufted dragon's wings kited upward at a threatening angle. A great feline beast of armor, long and curved of claw, its mane razored spikes and smooth curved plates, its tail long and jointed, tipped in a heavy comma of a stinger.  
It bared its fangs in a wide-mouthed grin, and its sparkling night-black surface glittered with a diamond's fire.

" ... Beautiful ... "

"Isn't she? Go look at her." 

Russet eyes glimmered mischeviously. 

"So much more suited to you, she is.  
"And so much better for visiting _proper_ vengeance against your family's murderers."

Ohko paused, one hand extended to touch the intricate beast, and narrowed his eyes at the bewilderingly trustworthy -- yet so strange -- Kathmandi. He was certain he knew him, somehow; but he was still only willing to tolerate so much.

His companion waved away the angry look with a little smile.

"Sorry, sorry. But its true nonetheless.  
"A creature of retribution, there, unless I miss my guess --"

Running fingers still painted with drying blood over the shimmering midnight plates, Ohko growled his agreement, missing the companion's growing smile.

"You don't know how right you are.  
"Death is too _easy_ for the likes of them" 

\-- his claws raked across the smooth etched plates, drawing a sound like deeply-tolling bells -- 

"but we'll make certain that their punishment after death is long, and fitting.  
"Won't we, Manticora?"

The beast seemed to almost hum its agreement, growing warm under Ohko's hand. He turned to look at the Kathmandi, almost challengingly.

"... No wonder the mountain feels natural to me.  
"Feh; what an old fool the Master was.  
"So -- what about _you_?"

"Oh, you'll see, you'll see." 

He laughed, his voice growing rich and inhuman with amused pleasure.

"Shall we go then, Manticora?  
"Your fellows are waiting for you to come home."

Ohko growled an assent as the sun dipped below the hills; between heartbeats he was encased in a new -- and long-remembered -- sheath of deathless adamant. And the two faded from the world.

-*-

Flexing clawed and tufted wings in a long slow stretch and switching his barbed tail lightly, Manticora Ohko looked up at the never-ending black ice of Caina's sky and sighed once.  
 _Now_ he was where he belonged.

He turned towards his traveling-companion in amused gratitude -- and, seeing the great curving wings and long graceful spurs of the Kathmandi's own brilliant midnight armor, sunk startled to one knee, one hand brought to his chest in homage and chagrin.

"I beg your indulgence, Lord Garuda, I did not recognize you ..."

Ruby eyes shone with amusement, and Aiakos clapped a taloned hand on Ohko's armored shoulder.

"And how would you have known me before I woke you to your senses?  
"Don't be foolish, my Star of Retribution. You've acted admirably.  
"Come to the Court now; we've much to catch up on --"


End file.
